A Different Composition

Torrin Trees: Sony A7iii 100-400 at 145mm, 1/200th f/5 ISO 100

This group of trees on the road to Torrin are very nicely placed on a small rise, with the majestic mountains of the outlying Cuillin behind. I decided another visit was in order as overnight snow had dusted the peaks making them look even more imposing.

It is a fairly well known location. You can't really miss it as you drive to Elgol. It is a little tricky to compose well, and I usually shoot it from a lot closer with a zoom lens at about 100mm to exclude the road and the "Passing Place" sign. There is a lot of small positional adjustment needed to get the trees framed nicely by the mountains and not breaking the ridgeline.

I spent a bit longer than usual there today exploring different angles and focal lengths. During a recent 1-1 workshop as part of my Kinloch Lodge photography retreats, a client shot this with the road in the frame, albeit from a completely different angle to this. Hmmmm I thought. I'll need to give that a go.

So this time I walked a fair way back along the road, got down low and had another go. Including the sign is a little "unconventional" but I'm somewhat of a veteran of photographing Passing Place signs and they are such a key part of Skye's environment that it feels right in this case.

In my usual way, I captured a number of angles, unable to decide on location which would be best. Having a selection of images to choose when editing is always wise in my opinion.

The overall composition I selected has the road curving in nicely, the sign in shot, and the trees rather smaller than I would normally shoot them. White salt on the road definitely helps to bring your eye into the scene, and it works very nicely with the snowy mountains behind, giving a feeling of scale to the scene.

I shot this on my Sony A7III with a 100-400 lens on it at about 145mm.

Despite how much I dislike the Sony A7 user interface and controls, it is an annoyingly good camera. It is just so hard and annoying to use. I will always prefer my Leica Q3 (and even my Ricoh GR3) when condition sallow, but sometimes I need a longer focal length so I reach for the Sony.

My 100-400 G-Master lens is an almost permanent fixture on the camera. It is a very good lens with an excellent range, and very sharp at all focal lengths. I also have a 1.4x extender to go with it so I can get up to 560mm if I need it. So the Sony is more of a tool camera that just gets the job done when I need it to.

Below for reference is a more conventional composition of these trees with the mountains in the background. Without the road and sign, it looks more remote and isolated, but also lacks that human element that draws you into the scene.

A more “usual” shot of these trees. A simpler composition.